Solario wrote:
Dave Arquati wrote:
Tom Anderson wrote:
On Tue, 1 Aug 2006, Dave Arquati wrote:

Bob wrote:

to turn round of half the trains at Paddington which seems a wasted
opportunity - taking over the Hammersmith end of the H&C removes a
busy junction on the Circle Line with knock on effects for that lines
reliability would seem a low cost no brainer.
I agree, but I think ensuring the central tunnel gets built is most
important - adding on too many extra bits here and there could kill
the whole project. Hammersmith could come later...
Except Hammersmith involves noodling about quite near the Paddington
portal (if you want to have a station at Royal Oak, or if you want to
use the existing H&C fly-under, at any rate), so if you don't at least
build in the possibility at the start, you might not be able to do it
later.
I'm not sure it would be worth keeping Royal Oak in this scenario
(gasp). Its catchment area overlaps a lot with Bayswater, Warwick Avenue
and Paddington H&C; a western entrance for Paddington Crossrail would
also be close by.

If CrossRail takes over the Hammersmith Branch, and I think there is a
case for it, then there should be considerable rationalization of
stations.

It might be necessary, given the length of the trains (up to 245m).
Westbourne Park should stay if Royal Oak were to go; Ladbroke Grove is
an important station, and could be moved so that there were two
entrances; one on Ladbroke Grove itself and the other on Portobello Road.

A similar arrangement could see a long White City station replace both
White City and Latimer Road; it could have a western entrance on Freston
Road and an eastern one on Wood Lane (the platform would not be quite as
long; it would not need to straddle the WLL & West Cross Route, but a
pedestrian bridge could do so).

Finally, a Shepherd's Bush station would be just the right length to run
the length of the market between Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road with
entrances at each. However, I'm not sure what impact this would have on
the market itself. If it were too bad, then instead the arrangement
might have to be to get rid of Goldhawk Road station altogether, extend
Shepherd's Bush up towards Wood Lane for White City, ditch Latimer Road
and have Ladbroke Grove run westwards with an entrance north of the
sports centre.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London